D (Dienke) Stomph MSc

Current position

In my role as a Research Officer I map out and identify potential research synergies within and beyond the GEO group, in particular focussing on facilitating participation in projects undertaken by Wageningen Research, e.g. Wageningen Environmental Research (WENR), in the spirit of the One Wageningen policy.

Over the next year (2020) I will develop two main projects: realisation of Het Veluweloket to strengthen the connection between the research done by Wageningen University and Research and the research questions that exist in its close surroundings, particularly in the Veluwe. The Veluweloket will help to realise goals of the regional and national sustainability agenda. The second project I focus on is to co-create a Centre for Landscape Visualisation. A Centre that will allow for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration, engaging amongst others scientists, artists, policy-makers and citizens in joined effort of exploring and studying dynamic landscapes and the human relation to these landscapes. Besides these projects I am developing my own research project with the prospect of a PhD degree.

My background

I have worked on various topics through-out my studies. In 2011 I started with my Bsc Future Planet Studies at the University of Amsterdam, during the first year I became intrigued by the world below the crust of the Earth and delved into domains of hydrology, morphology, soil science, remote sensing and geoinformation systems in the years that follow. After graduating my Bsc I continued with an Msc in Agroecology for which I continued my quantitative analytical journey by programming and modelling agroecological models that captured metrological, plant physiological and soil processes. To finalise this Msc degree I worked on the analysis of the diversity of livelihood perspectives of smallholders in two regions in Nicaragua. My research experiences of these natural science degrees sensitised me to the political and cultural complexities of rural realities and to the interconnectedness of the rural and the urban both physically and socially. Therefore I continued my academic journey into a new domain sociology and more specifically political ecology, I enrolled as an Msc student in Development and Rural Innovation. This allowed me to unravel the socio-political complexities. I wrapped up my student time with my Msc thesis on tensions between agroecological pasts and presents in the Peruvian Andes with a focus on Quechua territorialities. During and after my graduation I worked multiple jobs at the Universities of Amsterdam and Wageningen, but I also worked on Organic farms in the Betuwe and as a yoga teacher all over the world. Now I am grateful to have this chance to develop two major projects at the chair for Cultural Geography, while with time I working to the acquisition of my own projects that merge territoriality with mobility and sustainable land use.